Roland Petit’s
“Fledermaus à la française”, La
Chauve-souris, was originally created for the Ballet National de
Marseille in 1979 with Petit’s wife Zizi Jeanmaire partnered
by Denis Ganio and Luigi Bonino as the mastermind of the nocturnal
escapades.

The action was transferred
from the operetta’s Vienna to the Paris of Vaudeville
theatres, which was the original source of Johann Strauss’s
celebrated operetta.

Directed by Luigi Bonino,
Petit’s assistant of many years, who also dances the role of
Ulrich, it features two more dancing stars from the “Petit
school” in the principal roles: Massimo Murru, the male star
dancer of La Scala’s company, for whom Petit had written
several ballets and Allessandra Ferri, who counts among the finest
ballerinas of today. Awarded with the coveted title of “Prima
Ballerina Assoluta” at La Scala, she was once described by
Roland Petit as the only rightful successor to legendary Zizi
Jeanmaire.

“Clever, surprising
ideas about movement and staging flow from his imagination, even in
a resolutely minor work such as this. Moreover, after hours and
hours of Lacotte‘s dutiful approximations of the past,
it‘s great to see genuinely creative choreography again
– new-minted ballet with plenty of precedent but essentially
intent on making history rather than becoming a footnote to
it.” Los Angeles Times